“As a market, women represent a bigger opportunity than China and India combined. So why are companies doing such a poor job of serving them? Women now drive the world economy.” – Harvard Business Review
Worth our weight in Gold
After reading some key facts about women and money the other day on the Womens Enterprise website I just had to swipe them and rewrite in into this post.
Every self respecting woman needs to know this situation has just got to change.
Did you know
Globally, women control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period.
Yet women feel totally under served. Businesses need to smarten up and start catering to our needs especially in the Financial Services industry which is the least sympathetic to women, according to a Boston Consulting Group survey from 2008. And the one in which companies have the most to gain if they can change their approach.
The scary thing is, we might have the spending power but we’re still well below par on the earnings front. Imagine how much bargaining
Source: Harvard Business Review
power we’d have as a market if we were actually paid what we were worth?
Did you know
- Women on average earn 63 cents for every dollar that a man earns. For that reason, women need to be extra careful about investing.
- On average, women spend 11.5 years of their working–age years outside of the workforce. This contributes to lower income levels and lower levels of retirement savings for women.
- A staggering 87% of the poverty–stricken are elderly women.
- After earning lower salaries for fewer years, women’s CPP benefits are much lower, on average, than those of their male counterparts.
The good news….
- There are over 9 million female-owned businesses in the U.S. generating more than $2.3 trillion in annual revenue.
- Women start their own businesses because they want to do something they love, they want more time and energy for family and personal activities, and they wish to help others through their work.
Money Matters
- Money and finance are definitely issues that go beyond gender and upbringing. There are both men and women who manage money well, and who don’t. A person is a person, not a gender; we are individuals.
- But generally speaking, when it comes to managing money and investments, there are distinct differences between men and women.
- Women see themselves as less likely to be risk takers than men are. A study found that 31.8% of women labelled themselves conservative investors, compared with 21.7% of men. (Source: CondeNast)
- Women take more time to investigate before they invest than men do. One study found that women spend 40% more time researching a mutual fund before they invest. What’s more, they tend to be less impulsive and less inclined to act on a hot tip than men do. (Source: CondeNast)
- Women are less confident in their investing abilities than men. Only 55.7% of women feel confident about their investing abilities versus 64.4% of men. (Source: Long Island University)
- Women invest online more than men do. The rate of investing online is growing faster for women than for men. (Source: Forrester Research)
Luckily organizations like the WomensEnterprise.ca exist. They help women to succeed in business with ‘real-world’ training and workshops in a number of essential subject areas required to run a strong and successful business. More importantly they offer empowerment lending with unique business financing that provides loans and ongoing business advice. Plus much more.
Make sure you use these resources that are all around you to ensure we get what we’re entitled to in this world – we’re worth our weight in gold.
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